In this issue of CDS I want to provide readers with an in-depth report on the organization and work of the Object Management Group (OMG). Some readers may feel that I'm providing them with more information on the OMG than they might want.

It isn't easy to get a good handle on the overall market for components, mainly because the term "component" is used in so many ways.

It is almost December. Only a few weeks away from the year 2000. The year 2000! The year I have been dreading for most of my adult life. I have read all kinds of speculation about what will or will not work in another four weeks, but I have not read a single word about the fear that most haunts me.

Software robustness is a problem that everybody cares about but few people address in their products. The average project has several weeks scheduled for testing, mostly in the weeks before deployment. Of course, since most software ends up behind schedule and over budget, testing often gets shortchanged. Most companies will cut into testing time before they'll move a launch deadline.

Software robustness is a problem that everybody cares about but that few people address in their products. The average software project has several weeks devoted to testing, mostly in the weeks before deployment. Of course, most software ends up behind schedule and over budget, and testing is the first thing to be reduced or cut.

There are no whole truths; all truths are half-truths. It is trying to treat them as whole truths that plays the devil. -- Alfred North Whitehead

The basic structure of XML is the document. This terminology, however, might cause one to think of XML as only a richer, more flexible HTML. It is richer and more flex-ible, but it can be so much more as well. Thinking of XML as a document allows you to see how it can be used for presentation of data. This presentation can be detailed and useful, as we will see from the way XML is constructed.

Now that e-business is becoming a pervasive force in business organiza- tions around the world, we're beginning to realize that it has created an "e-culture" that is often quite different from the prevailing culture within the organization.

Information technology innovations produce their biggest effects on businesses that are either too young or too old to stand the jolt to their cultures without stumbling. This kind of culture shock is substantially reduced in "mature" organizations. Indeed, maturity is a hallmark of the resilient organization.

For most of us, e-mail has become a part of our everyday life. We use e-mail to talk to friends and family, we use it to schedule appointments, and we use it to conduct business communications. In a 1999 Gallup poll, 90% of all large companies, 64% of mid-sized companies, and 42% of small businesses reported that they use e-mail.

Those who could stand to learn the most from James Gleick's Faster: The Acceleration of Just about Everything are those least likely to read it, let alone learn anything from it.

Finally, there has been a small amount of substantive discussion of the Y2000 problem in the popular media, although most coverage continues to include only simplistic explanations and completely avoids (the dreaded) macroeconomics. Yet despite the media coverage, the public seems increasingly unconcerned about the problem. This summer, a National Science Foundation poll found the American public's concern about possible Y2000 problems was decreasing.

IT organizations turn to outsourcing for any number of reasons, and to fulfill a variety of needs.

IT organizations turn to outsourcing for any number of reasons, and to fulfill a variety of needs.

This article explores "under the table" work - those work assignments that bypass normal channels along with its costs, causes and solutions.

This article explores "under the table" work - those work assignments that bypass normal channels along with its costs, causes and solutions.